Amtrak border fee: Canada backs down

The Canadian government has agreed to waive for one year a proposed $1,500-a-day border clearance fee on the second Amtrak train running daily between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.

The fee threatened to cancel the popular train, which carries visitors who stay overnight in Vancouver, because the Washington State Department of Transportation did not have money to pay it.

“I’m thrilled the Canadian government understood the economic risks that losing this second train would have created,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., added: “Local commuters and tourists will be able to use this train to travel more efficiently around the region and fuel the local economy by spending their dollars in communities on both sides of the border.”

The train was started, with great fanfare, as a pilot project to get visitors to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

It generated millions of dollars in tourism business in Vancouver, and the service was extended to Oct. 31. The decision Thursday means it will continue without the clearance fee at least until October of 2011.

The evening train arrives in Vancouver at about 11 p.m., and leaves the next morning at 6:40. It augments a train that goes north to Vancouver in the morning.

Washington has lobbied to have the fee waived, arguing that the second train increases visitor spending on both sides of the border, and eases congestion at car crossings of the 49th Parallel.

“This is a great reprieve,” James Chase, CEO of the B.C. Hotels Association, told the Vancouver Sun.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson thanked the national government for waiving the clearance fee, adding: “This is good news for Vancouver’s tourism industry and our local economy.”

The fee was intended to recover costs of receiving passengers into Vancouver at night.

Gov. Gregoire effused in a statement. She managed to thank British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and Canada’s Seattle Consul-General Denis Stevens, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The governor reserved her strongest words of praise for Larsen and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., both of whom face tough reelection races this year.